South Sudan

Decades of civil conflict had taken a significant toll on South Sudan's farmers. Producer organizations were scattered, markets abandoned, and farmers' fields had been moved far from roads to hide from soldiers and mauraders. South Sudan's agriculture was largely subsistence-based, lacking access to inputs, machinery or wider demand.

Cambodia

Cambodia's rural regions are ideal growing zones for high-value fruits and vegetables, but the country's horticultural buyers typically source from neighboring Vietnam and Thailand, depriving the nation's farmers of crucial income.

We identified entry points to expand the supply of export-quality mangoes, including trainings in best harvesting techniques, post-harvest processing and packaging at pack houses.

To ensure best practices filtered throughout the value chain, we collaborated with national inter-professional associations, exporter associations, cooperatives, chambers of commerce and relevant government agencies.

We have worked in the West African livestock sector for the last ten years, introducing new marketing practices in a very tradition-bound environment. Thanks to our work, Sahelian producers have learned new ways of working. Instead of walking their cattle thousands of kilometers in search of buyers in coastal markets, they are fattening and slaughtering them in the Sahel. On the basis of contracts negotiated in advance, producers are transporting the meat to buyers on the coast in refrigerated trucks.

This new practice helps increase income, which allows households to enjoy a higher standard of wellbeing. The sector is gradually moving toward modernization and the younger generation is poised to build on this foundation.

Tanzania

Tanzania's rural dwellers often lack access to a variety of foods containing essential vitamins and minerals. Children in rural areas are especially vulnerable to malnutrition -42 percent of Tanzanians under age 5 suffer from stunting, anemia, and other micronutrient deficiencies.

To boost awareness and understanding of fortified foods, we trained over 7,000 community leaders, conducting informational campaigns that directly reached more than 50,000 people and publishing numerous guides and brochures. Surveys in the project's final months showed that it succeeded in increasing the flow of fortified foods into the marketplace-and that demand was also rising for fortified foods.

After four years, consumption of fortified flour rose from zero to 50 percent consumption among surveyed populations, while 52 percent of shops surveyed were stocking fortified flour in target regions. Among surveyed families with children under 5, 35 percent were using Virutubishi micronutrient powder, up from zero in 2013.

The pilot in Nigeria, similarly to other AgResults pilots, uses prizes to incentivize the private sector to help smallholder farmers access a new and beneficial technology, in this case, Aflasafe®. The hope is that the pilot will catalyze the creation of a sustainable market for this useful product. Our evaluation included rigorous qualitative and quantitative research to understand the pilot’s affect on the private sector, the market for Aflasafe®, and the targeted smallholder farmers, as well as implications for broader lessons about prize-based projects.

The results of our evaluation are being shared with the AgResults donors and the broader development community. In Nigeria, a new project to promote Aflasafe® is building on the lessons of the AgResults pilot.